1.
Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren;
2.
The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.
3.
Honour widows that are widows indeed.
4.
But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.
CHRISTIANITY IN THE HOME
‘Learn first to shew piety at home.’
1 Timothy 5:4
The test of a man’s piety is to be found in the home. It is a common complaint of to-day that men and women show their Christianity everywhere but at home and among their own people.
I. The claims of home.—The home and home relatives and friends have the first claim upon us. No amount of meeting-going can make up for the neglect of the home. Men and women have been known to look after other people’s children in Sunday-school and elsewhere while their own children are allowed to run wild, and the ground thus lost can never be recovered.
II. Piety at home.—This must be shown in—
(a) Family worship—a practice which unhappily is not as common as it used to be.
(b) A well-ordered life—patient, kind, sympathetic, and forbearing.
(c) A realisation of Christ’s presence. The truly pious person will not be content with sticking up in the living-room a card inscribed ‘Christ is the Head of this house’; he will show by his every word and thought and deed that he realises the guiding, sanctifying presence of the Master in all affairs of home life.
III. The home mission field.—Just as the claims of the home are paramount, so are the claims of our own countrymen to hear and to know the Gospel of God’s love. The needs of the foreign mission field are great, and must not be neglected, but may it never be said of us that we have been so eager to send the Gospel abroad that our own vineyard we have not kept. All home mission agencies need and deserve our warm support. ‘This ye ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone.’
SIN
‘Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.’
1 Timothy 5:24
There are thousands whose lives are their own condemnation. These are they whose sins are ‘open beforehand.’ ‘And some men they follow after’; that is to say, there are men all fair without, but within full of disguised and deadly evil.
I. Beware of sin of all kinds.—Sensuality, excess of meat or drink, deadens the soul, makes it, like the body, heavy and drowsy. It shuts out Jesus from your view. Beware of anger, envy, pride, sloth, a want of love, a peevish tone, an evil eye, an unguarded thought. Beware of inconsistency, of indifference to anything that concerns your precious Saviour. Such things deaden the heart, and raise grave doubts within as to whether He can love such as you.
II. One sin does not come alone.—Soon its train appears, until at length there is nothing outwardly to distinguish you from the inconsistent, ungodly, professing Christian world. The spiritual life is dead. A veil hangs between you and the Saviour. Oh, sad state to fall into!
III. The most powerful intellects of those who live in sin are mysteriously limited in the perception of truth. On the other hand, have we not often seen men of no intellectual power, yet possessing such gifts of wisdom and knowledge, such ripe and fruitful apprehensions of Divine truth, as the most cultivated intellect has never attained to?
IV. Sins which follow after.—Deceive not yourself: ‘they follow after’; stealthily, surely, like shadows, turning where you turn, dwelling where you abide, mysterious, inseparable. Oh, that a word of mine could arrest you, make you hasten to Jesus, to His precious blood for cleansing, pardon, peace! Unconverted one, may the Spirit of God open your eyes! Only He can.
5.
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.
6.
But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.
7.
And these things give in charge, that they may be blameless.
8.
But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
9.
Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man,
10.
Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.
11.
But the younger widows refuse: for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry;
12.
Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith.
13.
And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.
14.
I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
15.
For some are already turned aside after Satan.
16.
If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.
17.
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.
18.
For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
19.
Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
20.
Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
21.
I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
22.
Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.
23.
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.
24.
Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.
25.
Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.